Friday, 16 September 2011

Project U.N.I.S.E.T. (United Nations Space Exploration Team) was in serious trouble, the constant attacks from the Enigmatrons and further threats from more terrestrial sources here on Earth meant more and more funds were diverted away from exploration and more towards defense.

But with dwindling resources here on earth, it was also realized that Space Exploration would play a very important part in Humanities Future. The heads of the various new Agencies put their heads together, for a new Organization funded directly by Continuum but autonomous and independent of the Government of Earth.

Project U.N.I.S.E.T. (United Nations Space Exploration Team) was in serious trouble, the constant attacks from the Enigmatrons and further threats from more terrestrial sources here on Earth meant more and more funds were diverted away from exploration and more towards defense.

But with dwindling resources here on earth, it was also realized that Space Exploration would play a very important part in Humanities Future. The heads of the various new Agencies put their heads together, for a new Organization funded directly by Continuum but autonomous and independent of the Government of Earth.

William Jansen, former head of U.N.I.S.E.T. was put in charge of the project – it wasn’t long before it had a base of operations and a name. Operating out of what was Cape Canaveral Commander Jansen made his first major decisions as head of S.W.O.R.D. (Space World Organisation for Research and Development).

Although S.W.O.R.D. was independent of the World Government – it was obvious from the beginning it would need to make a “good showing” – three Months after its creations S.W.O.R.D. gained the nickname “Continuum’s Folly” as it had achieved nothing in that time. An unfair assessment at best, as these things (especially research/design/space exploration) take time and effort.

Six Months later, S.W.O.R.D. made a breakthrough announcement – they were to take a manned mission to Mars, to ascertain whether colonization with the intention of Mining is a viable project.

Shortly after a new Spacecraft designed and built by the best engineers Continuum and S.H.A.D.E. had to offer – overseen my Commander Jansen left the Pads at Cape Canaveral - Captain Peter Walker and his crew of two astronauts and two scientists, left earth for the six week journey.

The 0-10 or “Zero-10” (marked as “Zero-X” on its fuselage) had an uneventful trip – but upon landing had hydraulics issues which would delay their lift off for the return trip for nearly 72 hours.

After a six-week flight, the 0-10 M.E.C. (Zero-X Martian Exploration Craft) lands on Mars on 22

July - whilst investigating the barren surface of Mars, the crew are puzzled to encounter strange rock formations arranged into coils.

Captain Jeff Malcolm (the 0-10’s Pilot) blasts one of the structures with his weapon and Doctor Byron Pierce (the mission mineralogist) prepared to leave the vehicle to collect samples. Unfortunately the coil formations stir into motion and reveal themselves to be some form of Silicon based life-form - these "Lava Snakes” (so nick-named by the crew for their ability to spew molten rock as an attack) thinking themselves to be under attack from these strangers attacked – completely destroying the Scrambler (the 0-10’s six-wheeled ATV) – forcing them Crew to return to the 0-10 on Foot.

Avoiding the Coil formations of Rock for the rest of the Mission, it was determined that Mars indeed was rich in Mineral deposits – and that the Lava Snakes were the only indigenous life-forms present.

On August 17th (nearly three days behind schedule) the Mars Lander docked with the orbiting command module – current manned by Navigator Norman Bradley, the crew of the 0-10 begin their 42 Day journey back to Earth, only to be greeted upon their return by what must be described as a fleet of Enigmatron UFO's - jettisoning the escape pod, the crew hurtled back to earth almost being killed in the process.

Thursday, 8 September 2011

The Enigmatron spacecraft can readily cross the vast distances between Contra-Earth and True-Earth at velocities approaching the speed of light, but they are only large enough for one or two crew.

Their time in our Dimensional plane is limited – the Enigmatron UFO’s can only survive for a two or three days in the Earth's atmosphere before they suffer from a heat buildup, begin to deteriorate and break down, and finally explode.

The Enigmatron craft can survive for far longer underwater – meaning that sometimes, rather than traversing the distances and dimensional variance’s between the two Earths – they simply “phase” into a body of water – this is a rare occurrence (but frequent enough to make it an issue) but it is not known why the Enigmatrons do not use this method of deployment more often, bypassing the moons detection and defense systems entirely.

It has been theorized that it takes massive amounts of energy, and a great amount of effort on behalf of the Enigmatrons to phase one of their Spacecraft directly to Earth – making conventional Space Travel/Dimension Slipping easier for them.

In flight they are surrounded by horizontally spinning vanes and emit a distinctive pulsing electronic whine that sounds like a Shoooe-Wheeeh the craft itself is armed with a projected energy-type weapon, but can be destroyed by conventional explosive missiles and warheads. The personal arms of the aliens resemble chromed assault rifles - but these have a lower rate of fire than that used by Continuum. They also sport a small device which paralyses victims, a sort of “stun gun” if you will. This is to reduce damage to the UFO crew’s victims to enable organ and body harvesting to keep their own inverted unnatural existence going.

The water based craft that the Enigmatrons phase into our Oceans and Lakes are somewhat different to the UFO’s, rather than sporting horizontally spinning vanes – the vanes are replaced with fins that slice through the water giving them forward motion. These craft are clumsy at best, slow to maneuver and turn - but still a threat to World Security and other Vessels.

The constant threat to the Oceans of the World by the Enigmatrons, meant than Cloudswimmer and Heron 1 were not simply enough to “Police” the world’s Oceans effectively. So, after a while the Military and the Navies of America, Australia, and the UK formed WODE (World Oceans Defense Enterprise) – specifically set up to patrol and protect Earth’s Oceans against the Enigmatrons and their Agents.

A new design of Submarine was Created, the “Manta” Class Assault Submersibles (or M-CAS as they were commonly known) were highly sophisticated combat submarines built for speed and maneuverability – they are capable of speeds of up to 600 knots and advanced pressure compensators allow them to dice down to depths of over 36,000 feet, which permits cruising deep down in any ocean of the world.

The main Base of W.O.D.E. “Aquaville” is located in Hawaii in the area surrounding Kailuna-Koa (the exact location has not been revealed for Security reasons) giving access to the Pacific. There are four other such bases around the World, one on the Coast of Ireland (on the Beara Peninsula) giving direct Access to the Atlantic Ocean, another on the Coast of Australia near Geraldton, giving Access to the Indian Ocean, one more in the Russian Federation near Murmansk giving Access to the Arctic Ocean, and lastly one floating base off the coast of the Antarctic giving direct Access to the Southern Ocean.

Monday, 5 September 2011

I was originally intending to paint my Crooked Dice Alien Minions "as I went along" but I got carried away with this because I like playing with Magnets LoL!

I wanted to do some 7TV Metalnauts - so I started painting up some for the next Campaign Day - only to find in a thread on the Forums that there are plans afoot to make proper ones!

I hate wasting miniatures, so I decided to use some of my rare-earth magnets - that way I can use any Minion head on a whim! I plan to do four in Green Boiler Suits, four in Yellow, and four in Red (my Human Minions are going to wear Grey) - each with all three heads painted, thus allowing me to field Four of each "minion" type or TWELVE Minions of the same type!

The Headless Minion, with heads.

As a Metalnaut, eventually I will re-paint the head as more of a 'dummy' LoL!

As a Pig Minion.

Yes I know the head is a bit "blue" but I want my Squid-Faced Minions to be more Lovecraftian.